A 1-chloro-4-arylbutane represented by the general formula (2): wherein R represents a hydrogen atom, a lower alkyl group, or a lower alkoxy group is useful as an intermediate for synthesizing medicaments and agrochemicals, and the reaction of a 4-aryl-1-butanol with thionyl chloride is generally employed as its production process. However, such a process is not always an industrially satisfactory production process because the production of the starting material, a 4-aryl-1-butanol, is troublesome and further the process requires plural steps.